55 letters from the Versailles rectorate “seem to raise questions”

The Versailles rectorate sent 120 “so-called disapproval” letters to families last year, 55 of which “seem to raise questions”, indicated Monday, September 25, the Minister of Education Gabriel Attal, during a press briefing at the outcome of a meeting with the rector.

“What I can tell you at this stage, based on the information communicated to me, is that over the 2022-2023 school year, 120 so-called “disapproval” letters were sent,” detailed the minister.

A meeting with the rector of Versailles

“55 of them seem to be asking questions. And obviously work will continue to identify what led to the sending of these letters, and whether it was justified to send them or not,” he explained after a meeting with the rector of the academy. of Versailles.

This meeting followed the revelation of a letter with a threatening tone, sent last May by the rectorate to the parents of Nicolas, a teenager who subsequently committed suicide in Poissy (Yvelines) after being the victim of harassment. school.

A letter described as “shame”

This letter was described as a “shame” by Gabriel Attal, who announced the launch of an audit on the management of cases of harassment during the last school year in each academy. The services of the Versailles academy and its former rector, Charline Avenel, who left in July, have since come under fire.

On Friday, the terms of another letter from the Versailles rectorate, sent in May to parents who complained of sexual touching of their daughter, were also condemned by Gabriel Attal. “Why did I come here to Versailles, first of all to create transparency. What are we talking about ? We are talking about a letter, called a letter of disapproval, which is sent to people when there are threats, sometimes threats to the physical integrity of national education agents,” underlined Gabriel Attal on Monday.

An interministerial plan presented Monday

In such a case, “obviously the institution has a vocation to stand alongside its agents and make it known,” he added. However, in this case “what happened is that there was an error, a mistake, it was that this letter was addressed to families who should not have received (it) , in situations of school harassment, even sexual assault,” continued the minister, referring to an “not acceptable” incident.

An interministerial plan on school bullying must be unveiled on Wednesday by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne during a press conference.

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